Flashback
by KrisTWIN
Summary: This is a one-shot in which Max has a flashback to the beach spoilers from Angel Experiment , and Fang tries to comfort her. FAXness!


Flashback  
A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

**---MAX POV---**

We were flying above Boston when I noticed the rest of the kids getting tired. And by kids, I mean mutant-bird-freak kids, otherwise known as my flock. Whitecoats (mad scientists) experimented on us when we were younger, combining our human DNA with avian DNA. Let's see, there's me, Fang and Iggy who are all sixteen now. Then there is Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel who are fourteen, twelve, and eight, respectively.

Suddenly, Fang appeared beside me in the air and said, "Max, we need to think about stopping."

"Yeah, I know. They're exhausted." Fang's glance behind him confirmed what the two of us already knew. Angel could barely keep her wings moving, Gazzy was having trouble keeping his eyes open, and Nudge was so tired, she hadn't said a word for fifteen minutes.

"How about there?" He asked pointing to a small stream of lights hitting the coastline below us.

"Sounds good," I replied. "Going down!" I shouted to the rest of the flock. Wearily they nodded and we began angling our wings downward.

Running to a stop on the pavement, I could hear waves crashing nearby and saw neon signs lighting up the street. After everyone had landed, we went in search of a hotel to spend the night in. Ten minutes later we were walking in the doors of the Marriot.

Fang and I walked up to the counter where a young blond was sitting reading 2nd Chance by James Patterson. She looked up with an expectant smile on her face, and when she saw Fang she flipped her hair and smiled. I groaned inwardly, but realized I didn't have to worry because Fang didn't seem to notice the girl's attempt at flirting. _Max, at least try to pretend you're not as attracted to him as you are; geez, you make it so obvious sometimes… _I thought to myself.

"Two rooms please," Fang politely requested.

"Are you eighteen?" The blond asked in a slightly less-flirtatious tone.

"Yes, of course," Fang lied easily, "And we really would like to get to bed, it's very late."

"Right. Of course, it must be exhausting having to take care of your siblings like this," She said assumingly, as she flashed another of her smiles in Fang's direction, and then glanced at me. Fang just stood there, not knowing what to say.

Stepping in I asked, "And how much will that be?"

"One hundred and ninety six dollars," She answered still gazing at Fang.

Handing over my seemingly no-limit debit card I turned around to face the rest of the Flock and noticed that most of them were on the verge of falling asleep. Fang got my card and our two room keys and the six of us walked to the elevators glad that sleep would soon overtake us. Our exhaustion prevented us from being fully aware of the small space in the elevator, and our claustrophobia wasn't as bad as it had been in the past.

The first room we came to we put Angel and Nudge in the first bed, and Gazzy in the second bed. Then, in the second room, I got the first bed closest to the door, and Iggy and Fang shared the second bed closest to the window. I wasn't worried about leaving the three youngest alone because our rooms were conveniently connected, and if Erasers did decide to attack, they'd go for us three older kids first.

After I had gone into the bathroom to change into my white camisole and blue basketball pants, I walked out into the main room to find Iggy and Fang sitting on their bed whispering.

"Hey guys," I said tentatively, "What's up?"

"Nothing much" and "You know…" were the two replies I got.

"Fine. I'm going to bed, and if you two know what's good for you, then you will go to bed too."

I quickly fell into a deep sleep, dreaming about a white house with a pond in the front yard, and a swing set in the back. Then, all of a sudden, my dream changed and there were Erasers flying in the air, but I was flying with them. We saw my flock below us and started diving head-first toward the ground.

"_No!" I tried to cry, but there was a part of me that wanted to do this, to see the looks on my family's faces. _

I woke with a gasp, and stared at the ceiling trying to remember what I was so worked up about. Oh right, that stupid dream. _It was just a dream, Max, it doesn't mean anything_, I tried to calm myself down, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to fall back to sleep now, so I decided that I would go for a walk on the beach.

As quietly as possible, I got out of bed and left the hotel room, making my way down to the soft sand, glowing in the moonlight.

**---FANG POV---**

Hearing Max gasp, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Just as I was on the verge of unconsciousness, I heard the bed creak slightly, and then soft footsteps over the carpet, and finally the door opening and closing with a soft squeak.

_Ugh_, I inwardly groaned, _what is it this time? Probably another bad dream… should I go comfort her? But would that look too obvious about my feelings for her? But she's probably sitting somewhere all alone, terrified. Where could she have gone? The beach probably, nice and quiet with just the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. Alright, Fang, let's get up and go see what's wrong._

As I stood in the hotel doorway, I saw Max sitting on the sand with her knees pulled up to her chest, and her arms wrapped around them. Her soft, white wings were peeking out of the hole she cut in the back of her white tank top. _God she's beautiful just like an angel_, I thought to myself. I walked up next to her and asked, "Can I join you?"

"It's a free country, do whatever you want," She replied with a sniffle.

As I sat down on the cool sand I asked, "Do you want to talk about it?" She just shrugged in response, so I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" I asked her in a soft, uncharacteristic tone.

Nodding she mumbled, "mm I know. It's just I keep having this dream where I'm an Eraser, and I'm half-unwilling, half-excited about killing you."

"Max, it's just a dream. You're not going to turn into an Eraser… you have too much good in you." I whispered into her hair.

"But what if you're wrong? What if we're all wrong, and there's this whole other side to me that _is_ really bad, like Jeb and Anne and Ari?"

"Oh, I see." I now understood her train of thought and why she couldn't sleep.

"Do you?" She asked with disbelief in her voice, "I feel like half the time you just say what you want me to hear, not what you feel. God Fang! Say what you feel for once in your life!" She shrugged my arm off her shoulder and scooted a little away from me.

_Where did that come from?_ I wondered. _I know that I'm a quiet person, but I thought she was okay with it. I mean, she's never shown any dislike to my quietness before._ "Yes," I said with a small amount of ice in my voice, "I do. I finally understand what's been going on in your head. Why you won't talk to me for any length of time anymore. And why you keep going off by yourself. So you see, Max? I do understand. I have been telling you what I'm feeling."

"Oh," Max said flushing, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to blow up on you… I've been feeling a little over-emotional lately, probably because of all this stress, plus it doesn't help that I only sleep for a couple hours a night and--"

"Max, don't worry about it..."

"So, what did you think was wrong? If you just now understand what's been going on with my mind, I mean."

"Don't worry about it," I said scooting back over to her and playing with her down feathers.

"No, I want to know…" She said in a whiney voice, as she smiled at me. I just shook my head in response. "Fine, I'll ask Angel. She can read your mind; she'll tell me what you've been thinking."

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you, but first come on a walk with me," I quickly agreed. I didn't want her threat to ring true, how embarrassing it would be if Max found out from _Angel_!

"A walk? Why?" Max asked obviously confused.

"Because my legs are cramping up."

"Oh," She said blushing again.

_Why did she think I wanted to go on a walk? What would she have been thinking that would make her blush twice in less than ten minutes? She can't possibly feel the same way that I do… right? _Standing up I brushed the sand off of me, then I held my hands out to Max to help her up. She appreciatively took hold of them and I pulled her up into a standing position. She quickly brushed the sand off of herself and started walking down the beach.

"Well, are you coming or not?" She asked with a giggle. _Did Max just giggle?_

"Yes, I'm coming," I replied with a smile.

"So, we're walking…" Max tried to get the conversation moving again.

"Uh huh," I agreed, not yet willing to tell Max what my mind was thinking.

"So are you going to tell me?" She asked.

"Yes, but first you have to answer a question," I said with a smile.

"What! That's not fair," She laughed, "That wasn't part of the deal!"

"Do you want to know or not?" I asked with a smile in my voice.

"Yes!" She squealed.

"Okay then," I started, "I thought--"

"Wait! I thought I had to answer a question!" She asked with the cutest confused look on her face.

Smiling I replied, "You did. Now shh… Anyway, you want to know what I thought was wrong, right?" She nodded, so I continued, "I thought you were having issues dealing with our relationship, or whatever you want to call it. It seemed to fit for me, you were ignoring me most of the time, you never looked directly in my eyes when you talked to me anymore, and you--"

She held her index finger up to my lips, " I don't think I could ever 'have issues' with our 'relationship'," she said making quotes with her fingers. Both of us were silent for a while, walking down the beach under the moonlit sky. "What is our relationship anyway?" She asked tentatively.

"Well, right now it's kind of at that stage between best friends and boyfriend/ girlfriend…" I answered awkwardly.

"That's what I thought," Max said thoughtfully.

I let her walk in silence for a little bit longer before I interrupted by saying, "Max?"

"Yeah, Fang?"

"I don't want to be stuck between 'best friend stage' and 'boyfriend/ girlfriend stage'. I want…" I took a deep breath to give my mind some time to think, to decide if this is what I really wanted, "I want to be your boyfriend. That is, if you will be my girlfriend?" My voice dropped suddenly, and I couldn't look at her anymore, so I stopped walking and looked down at my feet. She stopped beside me and stood there with her mouth hanging open. "Or you know, we can uh, forget that this conversation ever happened…" I said awkwardly.

"What! No way!" Max exclaimed, "I've wanted this forever, I just didn't know how to tell you…"

"Forever, huh?" I asked with a smirk as my confidence returned. She smacked me lightly on the arm, and nodded.

"Yeah," She said quietly, "I've wanted this since I was fourteen."

"Come here." I said, wrapping my arms around her in a hug. We stood there for what felt like hours, lost in each other's embrace. I could feel goosebumps on her arms, and I started running my fingers up and down, trying to warm her up. Feeling the scar on the inside of her wrist, I turned it over and stared at it.

"Remember?" Max asked.

"I can't seem to forget. I almost lost you Max," I said in a sad voice.

**--MAX POV--  
****(The following all belongs to James Patterson, I'm just borrowing it)**

_I'd had it, totally had it. No more. I ran to the water's edge and looked down at the sand. In moments I had found it— a piece of broken shell, sharp on one side. _

_It was time for the chip to go… I pressed my lips together hard and started sawing at my forearm, where I had seen the chip on an X-ray, three lifetimes ago, in Dr. Martinez's office. _

_The first slice brought blood and a surprising amount of pain. I clenched my teeth harder and kept sawing. Blood ran down my arm. I would have cut through tendons and muscles and veins to get to the chip. Dr. Martinez had said that if I tried to take it out, I could lose the use of my arm. _

_Too bad._

_I heard skidding, running footsteps behind me, and then Fang was panting over me._

"_What the hell are you doing?" he shouted, and grabbed my wrist, smacking my hand to make me drop the piece of shell. "Are you _crazy_?"_

"I'm sorry I made you cry that day." I said when she finished recalling the memory, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It wasn't you that made me cry. I was so overwhelmed with everything, plus the fact that I almost died knowing that I loved you…" She stopped when she realized what she had said, "I mean…"

"Max, it's okay. I love you too." I said grabbing hold of her hand and squeezing it gently.

"Really?" She asked with hope-filled eyes.

"Really really." I said mimicking her, and smiling, "I love you more than Romeo loved Juliet."

"Aww," Max said as tears welled up in her eyes, "Well then, Romeo, do you think we should go back to bed? The rest of the flock will wake up in an hour or so, and neither of us slept much."

"That sounds like a plan, Juliet." I replied picking Max up bridal style and carrying her across the soft sand in the glow of the morning light.

**A/N: So tell me what you thought in a review! I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this story, but even if I do it will not be for a while. Check out some of my other stories, I am currently writing a modern day Snow White fairy tale for my creative writing class, so that one will get updated more frequently, at least for now!**


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